Stewart did an awesome job confronting DeMint on Republican fallacies. Stewart shows remarkable and keeps his cool while bringing out the facts for DeMint. I'm really, really impressed with his performance here. DeMint's claim that the Bush tax cuts did not lower federal revenue are
total bunk. DeMint's concept of how Social Security is sad because it's incorrect. Current retirees did
NOT earn what they are pulling out of the system. FICA and payroll taxes go directly to current beneficiaries. It's a direct transfer of wealth from current workers and younger (those under 65) workers to retirees. It was designed that way to make it very, very hard to change either system. Both systems were designed to run deficits. His ideas are wrong because he refuses to grasp reality and facts. I think you could argue that you could make it so that SS and Medicare/Medicaid do not run in the red so much if at all, but the only way to do that without cutting benefits is to raise taxes, which is an absolute no go for all Republicans and many Democrats. Stewart comes back to the fact that the portrayal of Republican ideas that if we restrain free markets in any way is a surefire way to hell, or that raising taxes will immediately make America the next European Bankruptcy is what makes having conversations with folks who believe that so frustrating. Their reality is not based on facts. They claim that 2+2 = 5, and if you say, 'no it's actually 4', they reply 'well, maybe so, but my point is....' That's not way to have a conversation! Yes, we reward those who have merit. Most wealthy in this country earned their wealth by working hard and doing the right things. That's great! But we do live in a society, and to keep that society going so that others might have that same chance, we all need to chip in to maintain what we have got here. Helping out our fellow citizens in some small way is not a prescription for communism nor does it mean that I hate freedom.
Here are all three segments:
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